ARTSPEAK RADIO live- So Long 2016- See You in 2017

Maria talks with Megan Crigger, Consuelo Cruz and Silvia Kofler
The Office of Culture and Creative Services (OCCS) was established in 2015 to lead cultural development efforts for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. The mission of the Office is to serve Kansas City residents by bolstering and catalyzing arts, culture and creativity and by leveraging the arts as a strategy for economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and cultural vitality for its citizens. The City of Kansas City, Missouri, wants to know what artists, arts and cultural organizations and creative businesses consider their top creative space priorities for the future. So the City is conducting an 11-week, regional survey in partnership with Artspace and Kansas City Economic Development Corporation to find out.

The official launch was held Oct. 25, at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Board Room at Union Station, 30 West Pershing Road. This was the second phase of an effort that began in March 2015 when Artspace, America’s leading developer of arts facilities, representatives visited the City. A report on the visit included a recommendation to survey artists and creative organizations from diverse art disciplines, ages and ethnic backgrounds to assess creative space needs.

Megan Crigger, Director of Office of Culture and Creative Services, is strongly encouraging stakeholders to complete the survey, calling their participation “vital.”

“Survey findings have the potential to inform broader impact on neighborhood revitalization, and possibly help to re-purpose abandoned city properties,” Crigger said. “We know there’s a dearth of functional spaces for creatives in Kansas City and across the country. The survey will help quantify that need and help tell that story for future planning in support of the arts in Kansas City. This will inform short- and long-term strategies to ensure creatives can thrive here.”

www.KCArtSurvey.org
www.kcmo.gov

Silvia Kofler is a widely published poet, translator and educator who likes to read her work and translations in many places. Last year, she read at the Sacramento Poetry Center and at Schokoladen in Berlin, Germany. Some of her recent publications include poetry and translations published in The Colour of Saying, an anthology in celebration of Dylan Thomas by Cross-Cultural Communications, USA, and The Seventh Quarry Press, Wales. German translations of 10 Hafez ghazals in collaboration with Bill Wolak and Mahmood Karimi-Hakak appeared in THOSE WHO STOOD UP FOR TOLERANCE / DIEJENIGEN DIE FÜR TOLERANZ STANDEN, published by The Feral Press, NY. She is the editor and publisher of Thorny Locust.
Silvia Kofler was born in Graz, Austria, and has lived in London and Paris before she moved to Kansas City in 1979. Her work has been published in Mid-America Poetry Review, New Letters, Black Moon, Potpourri, Coal City Review, Anykey Review, The Kansas City Star, and numerous other publications.

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